Pressure mounting on Mawiwi

Sport
PRESSURE continues to mount on Harare City coach Bigboy Mawiwi who is yet to register a victory in the league amid claims that he is being sabotaged by some members of the club’s hierarchy.

PRESSURE continues to mount on Harare City coach Bigboy Mawiwi who is yet to register a victory in the league amid claims that he is being sabotaged by some members of the club’s hierarchy.

Tawanda Tafirenyika Sports Correspondent

City, who came close to winning last season’s championship, have endured a disastrous start to the 2014 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) campaign following three successive defeats which have left them anchoring the league table after three matches.

After a defeat to Chicken Inn in their opening match of the season, Harare City were edged 1-2 by Harare giants Caps United — the same team which denied them the PSL tittle last season after they threw a spanner in the works to draw 2-2 in a match. The Sunshine City boys needed a victory of any margin to clinch their maiden championship.

On Saturday, Mawiwi’s men were edged 1-0 by PSL new boys ZPC Kariba who have had an explosive start in their maiden campaign in the topflight league.

For a team that nearly clinched the championship at the expense of giants Dynamos and Highlanders in a very close race last term, the performance by Harare City in their first three games has cast doubt about their capacity to mount a serious challenge on the championship this term.

Sources close to the team’s dressing room said there were some people in the club hierarchy sabotaging the team.

Mawiwi, however, declined to talk about the instability and the alleged sabotage in his team saying they were facing “challenges”.

“We are going through a difficult period. We are facing challenges as a team, but I think we will be able to bounce back,” he said.

A source, however, claimed Mawiwi was paying the price for failing to retain Godfrey Nguwodzawo and Edgar Tapera in the team as they were close to an influential member of the executive secretary-general Tarisai Kwenda.

Nguwodzawo has since joined How Mine while Tapera has gone down to the Division One League.

The two players are said to enjoy a close relationship with Kwenda. She is said to have been riled by the decision to sideline Nguwodzawo and Tapera from the team.

On Saturday she is alleged to have celebrated when ZPC Kariba scored. When the team went to Bulawayo for their opening match of the season, Kwenda is said to have given an instruction that there was no hotel room for Mawiwi.

Sometime this year, one of the players Phineas Bhamusi, is said to have been given the responsibility to hand out payslips to members of the technical team.